Steven Neerkin, 56, from London, left the world of work in his early fifties – content with a long retirement ahead of him. But after a few years, he realised it might be time for a new employment challenge. He tells Charlotte Lytton about coming out of retirement to teach. Interview by Charlotte Lytton
By the time I retired, four years ago, at the age of 52, I’d already had two careers: first as a derivatives broker for 25 years, then working for my family’s property business for seven years, with a period spent in academia, getting my MBA, in between. I was never one of these people who wanted to work until they were 70.
When I retired, I had no intention of ever going back to an office again. I considered myself blessed that financially I was able to walk away, so I happily spent three years playing golf and padel, and basically just enjoying myself. I absolutely loved every minute of it, and had plenty of friends in a similar position with whom to spend my newfound freedom.
That was it, I thought: my working life was over. Until my wife – who clearly felt I was enjoying my retirement too much – suggested I go into teaching. She is a teacher, like my daughter and late mother, so I’d always considered it, I’d just never had the time to see it through. I was only going to go back to work to do something that I just thought would be challenging, that I’d be good at, and that I could be proud of. Teaching ticked all three boxes.
Much as I loved retirement, I did notice that my brain had somewhat stopped working. I made a point of trying to read as much as possible, and doing silly things like Sudoku puzzles just to keep my brain active, but it wasn’t the same as being challenged each day.
So I got in touch with a few organisations with the idea of teaching business and economics to secondary school students, and ended up at NowTeach, which supports people changing careers to go into teaching. For the past 10 months, I’ve taught four days a week and trained for one. I will qualify in the summer.
People ask if teaching is stressful, particularly after having retired. But given that I’ve worked in two of the most stressful industries possible – the City, and owning my own business, where you’re responsible for everything and everybody – do I find teaching stressful? I really don’t.
One of the biggest things I’ve learnt over the past 10 months is how much children have changed since even my own (now aged 26 and 27) were at school. They don’t seem to have the same inbuilt respect for adults anymore. Before, it was a given that when it came to your teachers, there were boundaries you simply did not cross. Now, they don’t even seem to have the same inbuilt respect for their own parents, which I do find somewhat surprising.
What has really upset me is there are times when parents seem almost afraid of their children. Some of them seem to think that it’s their job to be friends with their children – and I just don’t agree. I believe our job is to love them at all costs, but you’re not there to be their friend. I’ve had meetings with parents who have said: “Have you got any advice as to how we can get our son out of bed?” And I have to explain that my job is to teach him once he gets to school: it’s their job to get him out of bed. It really has been a shift in attitudes that I wasn’t expecting.
Something else I’ve learnt during this process is that there is always room for improvement (and that sometimes, I’m not as good as I think I am). Teaching is hard; teaching is tiring. There is an awful lot of prep work required and you are never really switched off. Maybe I came in naively thinking it was going to be a walk in the park, and it’s nothing close to that.
My age means I have a lot of experience of the subject matter – but just because you know the stuff doesn’t mean you can teach the stuff. I’m still learning, and I’m by far from being the finished article. But I’m incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful support system behind me; my colleagues and bosses have been phenomenal.
I’m not at the point where I’m teaching on autopilot: I’m listening to what my experienced colleagues are telling me, and adapting. And that’s surprised me too, because sometimes, I can be a bit pig-headed and arrogant, thinking I know better. But one thing I have noted watching some of my peers is that I want to teach the way they do. They make it look effortless, and I’d love to be like that: to be able to teach with that much impact, and make it look easy.
Despite the challenges, is teaching highly rewarding? Oh my God, yes. Do I look forward to going to work every day? Absolutely. And even on the bad days, I think: I’ve had worse. There’s no comparison between the sense of achievement I feel through teaching, compared to my previous careers. Especially with regards to the City, it’s a job you do for the lifestyle it gives you; you sell your soul to the devil, he takes his pound of flesh and in return, you get a very nice life. Honoured as I was to work for my previous company, there was no real meaning to it. I certainly never thought I was changing the world.
Now, I’ve got the ability to change the world, one student at a time. We’ve all got a memory of that one teacher at school who made an impact on us. Wouldn’t it be great if I was able to have that impact on a student, even if it’s just one? It would mean I’ve made a difference. And I hope to do that for as long as I can.